Grass Dyed Red | IT 2017

iv.

Ben peels away his bandaid, inspecting the wound underneath. "How's it looking?" Delvina asks the boy, hoping that he's satisfied with her work, despite everything going on. "Better, thanks Delvina." They're at Basset Park Quary, lolling off of the lovers jumping rock. Ben looks at Bill, Richie, Stanley and Eddie all stripped to their tightie-whities, standing in a line staring at the edge, the black water foreboding, endless. On the end next to Bill is a dry Delvina, eyes red in a pair of Bills underwear and her bra.

"Who's first?" Bill asks, looking down to the far jump lightly grabbing Dels hand. "Eddie?" Richies questions motioning the skinny boy to go. "Screw that." He says, looking over to Ben who makes his way over to the groups line. "I'll go." He says looking down the line twoards Delvina. Everyone's heads turn to the boy, with Del and Eddie quickly shaking their head no. "With those cuts you have on your chest, I'm not sure if getting in this water-" "Will you stop with the grey water shit. You make it seem like any water we get in is like swimming in an out- house." Richie says not letting the smaller boy finish his sentence. "What's grey water?" Ben questions, looking to Richie snd Stan. "Don't get him started."

"I'll go first." Bill says, having a everyone back up and make room. "Gang of sissies." The boys turn around to see Bev stripping out of a one piece summer dress down to her underwear and bra. Before they can comprehend what's happening, she sprints towards them grabbing Dels hand and jumping off the edge and into the water. BOOM. Cannonball.

The Boys look at one another. And then one by one, they jump. Once everyone is in the water, they all start to fool around and chill. Suddenly, Bill goes under the water, and Del looks around after seeing him gone. Quickly, the girl feels hands on her waist, and looks into the water to see Bill come up. He takes a breath, before going back under taking Del with him. She gets free from his grasp just before touching the bottom, and attempts to swim away.

Not long after, the girl is pinned to the bottom, her back touching the cool, sandy floor. She looks up to Bill, who's pinned her with her hands over her head. She had never seen this side of Bill before, slightly reckless but still gentle like normal. The girls cheeks flusters in the water, butterflies forming in her stomach as the water moves around them. Their body's come closer together before they are practically touching, faces inches apart.

The boy and girl look at eachother before pushing off the bottom and swimming up to the top. Once above the surface, they gasp for air to see a majority of the group getting out. Beverly look over to them, and smiles before following the boys. The two swim over to the others and get out in attempts to dry off.

Beverly and Del lay out on a rock sun- drenched, as Richie's Boom Box nearby continues playing Love and Rocket's 1989 summer radio hit "I'm Alive". Bill, Ben, Stanley, Richie, Eddie lay on other rocks, leaving a distance between them and the two girls. None of 'em bold enough to lay near them, but all of 'em wishing they were as they sneak their stares in. "We're being watched." Bev whispers into Dels ears causing her to jump slightly, as she was just about to fall asleep.

Beverly turns to lay on her stomach, and Del turns her head to look at the boys, the sudden movement startling the boys, so they all look away. Busing themselves with other things, Richie turns to Ben's Backpack. He see it filled with books and papers, making him curious causing him to start going through it. "Newsflash, school's out for summer." Everyone's head turn to Richie and Ben, besides Del who sits up and turns to look towards a bush. "That's library stuff. Not school stuff..." Eddie flips through a book on the History of Derry, hoping to find something good in it. "What's with the history project?"

"Oh, uh, when I moved here I didn't have anyone to hang out with or anything, so I just started spending time in the library." Del looks over past the bush and sees a red balloon. She slowly scoots back as the balloon starts to creep closer to her. "Seriously? You went to the library? On your own? For fun?" Bill and Richie take a closer look, and Beverly joins them. She sits down next to Bill, while she turns back to look at the book. "I want to see too, Del?" She asks while looking to the girl who starting to back up closer to the edge. She sees the scared expression on her face as she's gets closer to the edge, and nudges Bill who looks up to the girl.

"D-delvina?" He questions as she nervously gulps, her eyes staying out onto the balloon now to close to her friends for her liking. Bill stands up and walks closer to her, gaining the attention of the rest of the group. "What they hells she looking at? She's like in some sort of zone." Richie points out, causing Bill to look into the direction she stares off into. Nothing. Pure silence is all he sees. Delvina gets close to the edge, inches away from falling when the balloon pops, and reveals the blank path they came from. Her hand suddenly slips on the edge causing her to tumble backwards down the cliff and plummeting into the cold water they had left before.

"DELVINA!" Bill screams before diving into the water after her. Everyone else runs up to the edge to see Bill hit the water quicker than ever, and disappear underneath. "Shit!" Bev yells before throwing off her sunglasses and jumping in after Bill. Everyone else stands there looking over the edge, debating wether to go in or examine what she got scared of. They decide to leave the two in the water already to it, and look down the path to see if they spot anything. A squirrel. They look back down to the water to see Beverly looking around for the two screaming their names.

"Delvina!! Bill!" She yells while looking in the water. Delvina gets pulled under the water by something grabbing her leg. She screams as she gets dragged underneath deeper and deeper, praying for her rescue. Bill frantically searches the water in hopes of finding the girl, and is about to go up for a breath when he spots bubbles coming from underneath him. Shortly after he goes to investigate, he finds Delvina sinking to the bottom, her necklace glistening in the last rag of sunlight. He swims down and reaches to grab her hand as she returns the gesture before her eyes flutter shut, and she looses her last breath of air.

He swims faster to the bottom and eventually reaches the girl, who's now slowly filling her lungs up with water. He notices a piece of seaweed wrapped around her leg, and breaks it off. He grabs her almost lifeless body and swims back up to the surface, desperate to save her life. He reaches the surface where he meets a worried Beverly in the water too his right on a small rock by the path back up to the cliff. The boys from the top grabs everyone's stuff, and immediately run down the path to meet the three below after seeing Delvina unconscious body. Bill carry's her up and lays her down next to Beverly, sitting next to her tapping her cheeks

"D-d-del. Wake u-up!" He screams more aggressively as Beverly bites her nails nervously. She slowly starts coughing up the water and scoot back towards Bill. She wraps her arms around his, her back facing him. He hugs the frantic girl as everyone else runs down to meet them. Beverly looks back up to the cliff they had all left, to see some sort of white figure staring down at them before walking away. "R-red b-b-balloon. I-it's h-him." She manages to get out as Bill tightens his grip.Beverly points tit he cliff where she'd seen the figure, and Del grabs onto Bills hand.

They all look up there to see nothing, and Ben quickly suggests the idea to get out of there. Nobody wanted to be there anymore, not after the events that had occurred moment prior. Everyone aggressive but Dem slowly stand up with Bill, holding onto him still as she feels a slight stinging feeling in her ankles where she had been dragged. He notices the red mark formed form where he'd ripped off the seaweed  in the water. He picks the girl up, slightly struggling at first before she wraps her legs around his waist, and arms around his neck making it easier.

Bill knows he shouldn't be having butterflies in his stomach with the thought of the girl he'd known for ages acting like this, or with the fact she's wrapped all around him. But he can't help it. His crush for the girl only grew stronger as he placed his hands under her thigh to hold her up as she lightly sobbed into his shoulder. That hurt him and the others hearing her scared sobs. "Benny boy, if you're gonna start
killin' time with us fools, do it right." Richies says once they reach the end of the path leading to the main road. Everyone goes their separate ways, and Del takes a ride with Bill to his house, where she's been a staying the last 2 days.

With her sister dead, and family all gone. She only has Bills family and the losers to rely on.